Until now, the “Maritime Silk Road” (MSR) was China’s pitch to ASEAN, promising to deepen trade and cooperation between the PRC and various Southeast Asian countries. Xi Jinping coined the concept late last year and has been marketing it ever since. It appears now that Xi has expanded the reach of the MSR to India; China extended an invitation for India to join the MSR during the recent 17th round of border talks between the Special Representatives of the two countries in New Delhi. Chinese Special Representative Yang Jiechi presented the invitation to Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon. India has accepted the invitation although it is not entirely clear what it entails at this point. Sri Lanka, whose foreign minister G.L. Peiris was just in Beijing, is also an MSR participant. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying indicated that the MSR is a flexible tool in China’s foreign policy at the moment. “This initiative is just an idea for cooperation. It is an open ended platform. The purpose is to integrate all kinds of ongoing cooperation especially cooperation on connectivity in the spirit of (ancient) silk road so that they can connect with each other and promote each other and accelerate regional countries’ common development,” she said. Continúe Leyendo: Aquí